Van Wyk celebrates after scoring his maiden Twenty20 International century
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman Morne van Wyk smashed his maiden Twenty20 International century to lead his side to a consolation win over the West Indies in Durban.
Van Wyk was well supported by all-rounder David Wiese, who took a five-wicket haul.
However, despite a valiant 49 by opener Lendl Simmons, the West Indies still went on to lose the match by 69 runs.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy would have been brooding over his decision to bat first after van Wyk and Reeza Hendrick amassed a 111-run partnership, during which van Wyk brought up his half-century, before Hendricks was caught by Dwayne Smith at deep midwicket off the bowling of Kieron Pollard for 42.
Wiese scored 21 runs before he was clean bowled by Dwayne Bravo.
Rilee Rossouw failed to trouble the scorers as he was caught behind off the bowling of Sheldon Cottrell for a golden duck.
Thanks to van Wyk’s career-best knock of 114, which came off 70 balls and included nine boundaries and seven sixes, South Africa finished on 195/3 off their 20 overs.
Pollard, Bravo and Cottrell picked up one wicket apiece.
Chasing 196 to win, the West Indies got off to a solid start before Smith was clean bowled by Aaron Phangiso for five runs.
Marlon Samuels fared no better as he was caught by South Africa stand-in captain Justin Ontong at point off the bowling of Wiese for six runs.
Simmons was the West Indies’ top-scorer with 49 runs, which came off 31 deliveries and included six boundaries and two sixes, before he was caught by Jean Paul (JP) Duminy at long-on off the bowling of Wiese.
Following Simmons’ dismissal, the West Indies’ middle and lower order completely collapsed as they went from 68/3 to being bowled out for 126.
Wiese inflicted the most damage with his maiden five-wicket haul, while Wayne Parnell and Marchant de Lange snapped up two wickets apiece and Phangiso claimed one.
Wiese finished with a career-best 5-23 off four overs
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Sammy was gutted to have lost the match, and said: “I’ve got to commend the boys on the way they played after the Test series loss. The first two games were a total team effort, we wanted to win tonight but we’ll take the series win. We’ve said it time and time again, T20 is a format we’re very experienced in, we have players playing all over the world – to have that experience in the dressing room, we can turn up and any given day someone can win a match for you. SA are very experienced [in ODIs], I’d like to wish the new captain Jason Holder all the best. We have to gel together and give him our full support.”
Ontong was pleased to have avoided a 3-0 whitewash, and said: “It’s massive, we owe it to ourselves, we’ve played some outstanding cricket but Chris Gyale was just too good. Credit to West Indies, we gave them everything but they gave it back. Morne’s hundred was great and I’m a proud skipper tonight. We were very hungry, we knew we’d let ourselves down in the last two games. All the best to the boys, I’m sure it will be a fascinating one-day series. We’d like to thank the fans as well.”
Van Wyk was named Man of the Match, and said: “Pretty amazing, really capped it off, contributing to a win like that. We came out and did ourselves proud and David Wiese really bowled well. There was a certain gentleman missing from their line-up, which probably gave our bowlers a chance. It slowed down a little bit and we bowled in the right areas. I spoke to Wiese and we thought the slower balls are holding up. We knew if one of us gets to the end we’d have a good total. A score in excess of 170 was going to be challenging. [Wiese’s bowling] Well done to him, we needed something like [that] and to take five wickets in four overs is a special effort.”
Gayle was named Man of the Series for scoring 167 runs at a jaw-dropping average of 83.50.